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The recovery is real, but it's still really far from the recovery we need. That's been the consistent message of the past three years, with consistent job growth that hasn't been near enough to end our jobs crisis much before the end of the decade.

But that might be changing. Now, there have certainly been plenty of false starts before, but this time might really be different. Housing is finally showing signs of life and austerity is mostly over. In October, this added up to 255,000 new jobs, including revisions to past months, and that despite us shedding 13,000 more public sector jobs. The self-inflicted economic wound that is firing cops and teachers has added a degree of difficulty to our already daunting jobs crisis, but that degree of difficulty is disappearing. As Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times points out, government jobs fell by 97,000 in 2009; 230,000 in 2010; 258,000 in 2011; before turning positive to the tune of 20,000 more jobs …

Having lived in the Tornado Alley for 30 years, I have learned many valuable lessons. After many raging tornadoes, straight line winds, and hurricanes I understood that churches and other Americans near and far, not the big government, were the first line of defense after a disaster.

Mennonites, Baptists, Mormons, and the National Guard came by truckloads with bulldozers, shovels, and chain saws to extricate their fellow Americans from trees and debris. Utility trucks from places as far away as Utah helped restore our power.

I have never met a Mormon who was not giving and caring to their fellow man. For this reason, I do not understand the sheer hatred against Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. At the same time, liberals bend over backwards to appease and co-exist with “religions” that preach hate and terrorism.

How can New Jersey turn down utility crews from Alabama who came to help restore their power, just because they …

Forestry is not an isolated sector disconnected from the world beyond the trees. teddy-risedBOGOR, Indonesia (10 October, 2012)_Ending deforestation has been a political goal for decades, even centuries – an unmet ambition up there with finding world peace and eradicating global hunger. The challenge has received increased attention in the past five years because of climate change and the fact that forests keep massive stores of carbon away from the atmosphere.The UN-backed scheme known as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, plus the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks), could see relatively large payments made to keep that carbon in the forests. As a consequence, a significant part of international forestry efforts has recently been focused on this one objective. Using forests to offset human-induced climate change is an admirable aim, and it is likely that other forestry objectives, such as conserving biol…

Outbreak Summary ⇓Progression of the Outbreak Investigation ⇑
October 11, 2012
Final Case Count Update
A total of 127 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Braenderup were reported from 15 states. Since the last update, six new cases were reported from California.
Among persons for whom information was available, illness onset dates ranged from July 3, 2012 to September 1, 2012. Ill persons ranged in age from less than 1 year to 86 years, with a median age of 33 years. Fifty-six percent of ill persons were female. Among 101 persons with available information, 33 (33%) patients reported being hospitalized. No deaths were reported.

September 14, 2012
Case Count Update
A total of 121 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Braenderup have been reported from 15 states. The 17 new cases are from 4 states: California (13), Hawaii (1), Illinois (1), and Washington (2).
Among persons for whom information is available, illness onset dates range from July 3, …